


I Challenge You

by Tazzy_Ladynero



Category: Original Work
Genre: Bikers, Gen, Urban Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-09 20:37:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16456796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tazzy_Ladynero/pseuds/Tazzy_Ladynero
Summary: A challenge is extended and cannot be refused.





	I Challenge You

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween!!

“I challenge you to a race.”

Those six words brought all the talking and laughter in O’Malley’s to a stop as every eye in the place turned to look at the biker who was staring down at the amused redhead balancing a tray of full beer steins on one shoulder.  She was dressed in leather pants that enhanced her long legs and a simple white blouse that was open to expose the chain encircling her neck, held closed by a small lock similar to what one would find on a young girl’s play diary. She shook her head, amusement dancing in her eyes. 

“You don’t want to be doing that, lad,” she drawled, her accent straight from the Emerald Isle, and everyone was waiting to see what would happen next.

Dwayne Johnson, despite sharing a name with a famous actor, was not nearly as attractive nor as fit as that actor. He was over six feet, but he carried a gut that bulged over his large belt buckle and thick leather belt. His cotton tshirt was sweat and dirt stained with the sleeves ripped off and only partially hidden behind a leather vest that was covered in chains and a couple of faded and grubby patches. His face was unshaven with a dirty blond stubble that was trying to be a beard but couldn’t seem to grow farther than an inch from his chin while his hair was in greasy clumps, another testament to his lack of general hygiene.

He pointed a grubby finger at Caitlin O’Malley, half of the O’Malley twins and co-owner of their combination bar-b-q restaurant and biker bar. “I challenge you to a race,” he repeated. He had been told that if he challenged her to a race and won, he’d have free drinks for the rest of his life at the bar. It was something he really couldn’t pass up as his thirst for alcohol always seemed to surpass his wallet’s contents. “And I will win.”

She sighed and walked around him to the table she had been heading towards, pausing long enough to distribute the full steins before whisking the empties away with the grace of a professional waitress. “I told you, you don’t want to do this.”

“I. Challenge. You. To. A. Race,” Johnson stated in a slow but firm voice, determined to get his point across. He was going to get his race, win it, and enjoy free booze for the rest of his life.

“Thrice challenged and twice refused,” she murmured before dropping the tray on the bar. “Sean! Explain the rules to our friend here. I’ll be getting Diablo ready!”

With that, she whirled on the heel of her boots and vanished through the back, strings of Gaelic swears drifting along behind her.

Shaking his head, Sean O’Malley, as dark as his sister was bright, wandered over and casually draped a heavy arm over Johnson’s shoulders. “You’ve done it now, me bonny lad,” he drawled, his accent just as Irish as his twin’s, as he tugged the man out of the bar. “SHe’s gonna be in a right state.”

“I can beat her,” sneered Johnson, ignoring the crowd that was following them out. Obviously everyone wanted to see him beat the little lady. “My bike’s the fastest in the East Coast.”

“On your head it is,” murmured Sean, pulling Johnson to a stop at the edge of the gravel parking lot and pointing down the road. “This road is a straight shot to Twin Rivers Bridge. It’s the old covered bridge that has been around since the founding of the town. To beat Caitlin, all you have to do is cross the bridge before she does.”

“You gonna have a spotter or something there?” Johnson asked, glancing around at the crowd for the first time. “I don’t want anyone claiming she won because she cheated and came back first.”

Sean shook a finger at him. “Didn’t say anything about  _ returning _ here,” he chided. “I said you need to cross the bridge before her. It’s ten miles to the bridge and at this time of night, it’s deserted. Watch out for deer and wolves.”

Just then, there was a clopping of a horse’s hooves, and Johnson looked over to find the lady riding a big black horse with what looked like a black cape tossed over her shoulders. She had also changed her boots into black knee high things from the steel toed combat boots she had been wearing inside the bar. Unable to help it, Johnson burst out laughing. This was going to be the easiest race ever!

“Sure you don’t want something a bit more powerful between your legs?” he leered before swaggering over to his souped up junkyard hog and started the engine, making sure to gun it loudly to spook the horse. Instead, the horse just snorted and seemed to give him a bored look.

The lady nudged her horse out onto the road, turning one direction that the bridge must lay down, and Johnson shook his head as he rolled his bike out to settle next to her. Sean walked out to stand before them both, the parking lot light glinting off the chain locked around his neck, and he reached up, catching something sparkling that the lady tossed him before shoving it in his pocket.

“There will be no taking any shortcuts,” announced Sean, his voice carrying even over the angry grumbling of Johnson’s bike. “The goal is to be the first to cross Twin Rivers Covered Bridge before the other. Don’t try to run each other off the road. Sheriff McIntyre will not be happy if he has to miss any more sleep because he has to come out for a wreck.”

Ha! Johnson knew he had this one in the bag. After all, he had some serious power between his legs while she just had a horse. There was a reason why horses became obsolete as a way to get around when gas engines became more common. 

Sean pulled out a white handkerchief that seemed to glow in the night and raised it above his head. For several seconds, he simply stood there, the bit of white cloth dancing slightly in the faint breeze before he suddenly jerked it down, signalling the start of the race.

The horse’s scream of fury nearly drowned out the roar of Johnson’s engine as the man opened the throttle all the way. The bike practically jumped down the road, the wind slicking back his dirty hair, and he grinned, feeling the thrill of racing down a dark road with only his wits and reflexes between him and the looming disaster that was always lingering around the next bend. The lights of the bar-b-q joint quickly faded in his mirrors, and Johnson laughed, delighted. This was ridiculously easy. There was no way he could lose!

A flicker of light in his mirror caught his attention, and he frowned as he glanced into it. It looked like fire? But how was that possible? He knew he was fast, but laying down lines of fire from squealing tires was a cartoon and Hollywood trick. It didn’t happen in real life. Taking a risk, he glanced over his shoulder, and what he saw, sent a chill through him.

The black horse was rapidly gaining, but now, its feet were on fire. He whipped his head back around and poured on the speed. It was impossible! No horse could keep up with him let alone catch him after the lead he had gained! 

A glance in his side mirror showed the horse, eyes burning like coals in the night, easily keeping up with him and even gaining a bit. Looking at his speedometer, he blanched. What horse could go over a hundred miles an hour with ease? He risked looking over his shoulder again and screamed like a little girl who just had a worm dropped down the back of her dress at what he saw.

The horse was snorting flames as it ran now, its hooves comets of fire as it continued to race down the road. The woman, who had looked so sweet and charming back at the bar, now rode with her head in one hand and had traded her hair for fire. The devil horse screamed again, a sound of challenge, just  _ daring _ Johnson to escape its rider, and a loud cackle came from the woman’s head, the sounds easily heard over the pounding of his heart and the roar of his bike. 

Whipping his head back around, he desperately looked around, hoping to find something that would keep him safe from the devil woman and her demon horse behind him. Something had to work, but what? He couldn’t risk going off the road because she would surely catch him then, but there was nothing on his bike that he could use as a weapon against the devil woman.

A sound similar to a gunshot burst out, and he screamed again as his bike bucked before twisting to one side. Dimly his mind realized that the front tire had blown, and he automatically curled into a ball, doing his best to protect his head as he half rolled half slid down the road, leaving more than a little bit of skin behind. When he finally came to a stop, he glanced around wildly, expecting to be run over by the devil woman only to find her sitting on her horse next to his down bike, her flaming head still in her hand. Another glance around showed a dark shape just a bit farther down the road that had a familiar structure to it.

The bridge! Maybe the bridge would save him from the devil woman!

Staggering to his feet, he raced towards the structure, gasping for breath as pain flared with each desperate step. Behind him, the clopping of hooves started again, slow at first before picking up speed. He tried to push his battered and very out of shape body faster, but he was at his limit. He just had a bit farther to go, and he would be safe!

At the edge of the bridge, he paused, risking a glance behind him, and he screamed again, the sound echoed by the horse as it rose on its hind feet. The cloak the devil woman had been wearing flared out like the wings of a demon, and she held her flaming head high in one hand. Then with a flick of her wrist, almost as if she was brushing away a butterfly, she flung the head at him.

The last thing he remembered was the look in those burning red eyes as they flew closer. He really shouldn’t have challenged her.

 

* * *

 

Sighing, Sheriff Nathan McIntyre shook his head as he shut the door to the Chesterham Police Department’s drunk tank. It was a single cell in the building with a plastic mattress, a drain in the center, and a bucket near the bed for any late night deposits. The man, Dwayne Johnson according to his license, sat curled up in the far back corner, whimpering and rocking as he occasionally mumbled about “demon horses” and “devil woman”.

“Did you really have to do this to him, Caitlin?” asked Nathan, turning around to look at the petite dullahan who still had her head tucked under her arm. He knew she had probably been challenged, and no dullahan worth their head would ever turn down a challenge. He just hated it when her opponent, or her brother’s, ended up in his care, babbling about monsters and demons. 

“I warned him  _ twice _ , Sheriff McIntyre. He’s the one who insisted on challenging me  _ thrice _ ,” she drawled, a frown on her pretty face. “He’s a newcomer so someone must be hazing him. When I find out who, they’ll regret their actions.”

“Don’t leave any bodies where I can find them,” he warned, leveling a finger at her.

She grinned and stepped closer, reaching up to pat his cheek. “You’re a sweet man, Nathan, and a great pack alpha, but if there were any bodies to be found, do you  _ really _ think I would be the one leaving them?”

Turning, she left with a swirl of her cloak, and Nathan shook his head again, following her out of the cells. There were days, and nights, he hated being the leader of the local werewolf pack  _ and _ the Sheriff of Chesterham, and when the O’Malley twins were being themselves were among those times. At least he didn’t have to wake up Dr. Frankenstein to come collect a body. The road rash the unfortunate biker had could wait until morning to be tended to.

Things were certainly never boring in the small town of Chesterham, Maine, and truthfully, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of a larger story I'm working on, but the scene would not leave me alone so I thought I'd share it with everyone as a Halloween treat!
> 
> Enjoy!!


End file.
